Ornamental decorations are often used at public events, festivals, parties, parades, and the like, to enliven the activities and enjoyments of the attendees. Among these well-known events are Mardi Gras, New Year's Eve events, Christmas parades, and other such celebratory public and private events. The ornamental decorations include signage, flags, hats, stylized costumes, and special jewelry and apparel decorations including buttons and necklaces. The manufacture and sales of such special articles and decorations has become a significant business. Attendees often purchase these special articles and decorations from stores, shops, and street vendors.
One type of such ornamental decoration is beaded necklaces. These necklaces typically use brightly colored, faceted beads strung onto an elongate cord for wearing around the neck. For example, many persons appearing on floats and in the streets during Mardi Gras parades wear such beaded necklaces, and often, persons on floats throw additional necklaces to persons observing the parades. Persons attending such events often use as one measure of evaluating their enjoyments based on the number of different necklaces "won" or received during the parade. The beaded necklaces also typically include enlarged, stylized pendents that celebrate the particular sponsors of the floats or generally relate with text and/or graphics to the events. Other similar beaded necklaces for festival participants are available from stores and street vendors.
To promote the excitement and enjoyment of the attendees, the beads are highly stylized and often reflect ambient lights such as from the floats, street lights, and shops along the parade route. The beads often are unitary articles with faceted faces and are made of brightly colored or shiny plastics. The beads have opposing, openings through which a cord extends, whereby the beads are strung together on the cord to form the necklace. To provide ornamental lighting effects, elongate plastic tubes containing light-generating chemicals have been used. The tubes form closed loops by engaging short connectors on the opposing ends so that the light-emitting loops may be worn around the neck or in the hair of attendees. Heretofore however, additional lighting has not been used directly in the beaded necklaces.
Accordingly there is a need in the art for providing improved bead necklaces having light sources for ornamental decoration of festival attendees. It is to such that the present invention is directed.